"Some
companies make widgets; our mission is to stop terrorism.
It's the same approach: prioritize and put in financial management
policies that make us more effective," he says.

Maner's
path to the CFO suite was anything but linear. His first few
post-college jobs, though government-related, had little to
do with finance. He landed a job in the White House press
office fresh out of Purdue University after sending "a letter
a day for 40 days" to Marlin Fitzwater, press secretary to
then-President George H.W. Bush. After the 1992 election,
Bush sought Maner's help in setting up his private office
in Houston. Maner followed that with a stint in Somalia helping
to coordinate the United Nations aid effort in 1993.

Maner
then moved into the private sector, working in marketing and
communications at the Chicago Board of Trade before enrolling
at Kellogg in 1995. After graduating with degrees in finance
and marketing, he helped found Aligne, Inc., an outsourcing
advisory firm. After that, Maner ran a $120 million fund-raising
effort and later sales for ICG Commerce, a supply-chain services
provider.

Maner
was drawn back to government after Sept. 11. The Bush administration
"needed good people, and I wanted to come back and do something
with the war on terrorism," he says. He was named chief of
staff of U.S. Customs, overseeing 20,000 employees and a $3.2
billion budget.

When
the agency was combined with Immigration and Naturalization
Services and several other departments, Maner was asked to
oversee the merger and integration process. His skill at coordinating
that 42,000-employee effort led directly to his appointment
as CFO at the Department of Homeland Security.

Maner
feels well-prepared for new leadership opportunities --- within
government and beyond.

"I can't
wait to get back into the private sector, but I'll always
be drawn back to the challenges of government management throughout
my career," Maner says. "I think you can have a great career
doing both."

A
nontraditional CFO: Martha Dustin Boudos '02
When Morningstar Inc. founder, chairman and CEO Joe Mansueto
launched a search for the company's new CFO, he put Martha
Dustin Boudos in charge of it.

Boudos
was well-placed to offer input on the selection process. She
had been with the company for 10 years in a variety of positions,
the latest as head of human resources. Mansueto and Boudos
reviewed numerous applicants for the job, many of whom had
followed traditional paths in accounting and finance.

Most of
the applicants were "incredibly smart people, but they didn't
know a lot about our business," Boudos recalls. As the search
continued, Boudos and Mansueto sharpened their focus on the
top qualification for the job: "an ability to understand our
numbers to help deliver results."

"We really
wrestled with finding the right person for that role," Boudos
says. "Ultimately, Joe said he wanted a CFO who really understood
the business, rather than someone who would just be a terrific
accountant."

That
person turned out to be Boudos, whose well-rounded rèsumè,
Kellogg School MBA and lengthy tenure at Morningstar eclipsed
the fact that she did not have a traditional finance background.

After
years spent working to develop budgets and deliver on the
numbers, Boudos had acquired a fluency in finance that surpassed
anything obtainable in a classroom. The experience she had
gained as a Morningstar employee, which included projects
such as revamping the company's employee stock option plans,
didn't hurt either.

"The
fact is that Morningstar is substantially a finance- and investment-focused
company, and this is what we all do here," Boudos says. "If
I'd been at, say, a biotech company, moving to finance might
have felt like a much bigger change."

Boudos
joined the company in 1992 and spent eight years as a manager
in a succession of departments: marketing, product development,
business development, retirement services and finally human
resources. She earned her MBA while working for the company,
attending The Managers' Program
in the evenings while leading various teams by day.

"The
most eye-opening thing about this position is that it really
is about who you have in place and how they're doing their
jobs," she says. "It's not just closing the books. It's a
management job, within a quantitative, numbers-oriented context."

Among
her top concerns these days: handling the plethora of issues
arising from the company's plans to go public. Chief among
these is the need to ensure that Morningstar is in compliance
with the Sarbanes-Oxley Act. The post-Enron legislation requires
CEOs and CFOs at public companies to establish adequate internal
controls and take responsibility for the accuracy of corporate
financial statements. Penalties for failing to comply include
personal fines and jail time.

Boudos
acknowledges that the law will compound her responsibilities,
but says she's ready to deal with the added pressure. "This
is the environment we live in," she says. "We'll comply with
the law and move on to other challenges."

Photo
courtesty of TIAA-CREF
Scott Evans '85

Investing
for the educational community: Scott Evans '85
When Scott Evans accepted a position at TIAA-CREF straight
out of Kellogg, he never expected he'd still be there nearly
20 years later.

Like
many of his classmates, Evans figured he would climb the career
ladder by moving from firm to firm, eventually becoming a
money manager "at a more exciting place." TIAA-CREF, which
manages investments for educators and researchers, seemed
to be a stable, nonprofit organization that would provide
Evans with solid training before he moved on.

What
Evans discovered, however, was an unparalleled lifelong opportunity
to develop his finance skills—and a deep sense of satisfaction.

"TIAA-CREF
is a really special place," says Evans, now the company's
chief investment officer. "It's one of the few places in the
financial profession where you can be at a leading firm and
also feel a strong sense of alignment with the interests of
those whom you serve. Since we are not-for-profit, there's
no conflict between the needs and interests of the customers
and those of the shareholders.

"It's
not hard to find passion for the job once you realize that
you work for the very educators who gave you the tools to
practice your craft. I know it sounds kind of corny, but there's
a clarity of purpose that permeates this place and gives us
a little extra motivation. It keeps people at the firm who
otherwise might have wandered off into other, more-visible
parts of the financial world."

Evans
joined the company in 1985 as an equity analyst, covering
the metals industry. "It was kind of a dull group of companies
that no one wanted to follow, so they gave them to the new
kid," he recalls.

The timing
turned out to be fortuitous, and Evans was able to capitalize
on a turn in the pricing cycle, making profits in a group
that had been given up for dead. "That experience taught me
to look closely at things that no one wants," he says. Following
his success with metals, Evans was soon assigned to cover
chemical and media companies as well.

In 1991,
Evans became a portfolio manager, joining the small-cap growth
team within TIAA-CREF's flagship stock account. The portfolio
segment grew to $800 million, and based on the team's success,
the company decided in 1994 to create the CREF Growth Account,
with Evans at the helm. The success of that fund led to Evans'
appointment as head of equities in 1997.

"I went
from an investment professional to a manager of people. That
was a big transition," Evans says. "I suddenly had a staff
of 200, causing me to scramble for all my Kellogg training
in managing people and organizations."

This
year, Evans was named chief investment officer, overseeing
some $300 billion in assets. Not only have his responsibilities
expanded, but the company is also restructuring its workforce
and overhauling its systems to better serve the educational
community. "I have a lot to keep me challenged right now,"
he says.

In the
midst of such upheaval, Evans finds he relies frequently on
his business-school training. "When I came to TIAA-CREF, I
had the capacity to work with all kinds of people and all
kinds of problems," he says. "The foundation for that was
set at Kellogg."